A Rose in Her Hand
by kyou fangirl
Summary: I'm going with the classic DrewXmay partners in their contests thing. the usual. just 10x cooler :D dedicated to the contestshippers who read this and actually REVIEW! :D LOVE YA! T to be safe PREVIOUSLY NAMED "TO BE ANNOUNCED"SAME STORY DIFFERENT NAME!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I OWN POKEMON! I AM THE ALMIGHTY OWNER OF EVERYTHING! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (jk. I don't _actually _own pokemon, but if _you_ do, I would DEFINITELY be interested in buying it! DAWN WILL DIIIIEEEE!)

A/N yeah. So this is my newest fic. I have NO idea how long it'll be. I've actually started 3 contestshipping fics (including an AU and a fic where they traveled with misty and ash ((ANOTHER GREAT SHIPPING!))) but this is the first one I'm actually going to post. No warnings except maybe a bit of ooc and possibly some inaccuracy because I didn't watch past the first season of hoenn. I watched a bit, but not all. And sinnoh doesn't exist. It has magically been BANISHED! YAY! 3 it makes me happy :D so yeh… enjoy ;)

Chapter one: A New Adventure!

Weeks. That is how long she had been freaking out. True, she had gone longer without seeing him. But she had always had the reassuring guarantee of seeing him again. And no, she wasn't in the least bit attached to him or dependant on him in any way shape or form. But something would seem amiss without his incessant teasing and infuriating arrogance and bigheadedness and insufferableness. True, it wouldn't be the same, but it should be a _good _change. Why, then was she freaking out. That was one question she honestly and truly did not know the answer to.

It was a month ago that he had told her that he was going to the Taschen* Region. It was 5 days and 3 hours ago that his boat had left. She had been there. She had sat across the street from the dock and watched the back of his green head as he walked away, not knowing when she would see him again. Not knowing why she cared. Now, lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, she remembered all the times she had had with him. He had constantly reminded her of her own inadequacy and ineptitude, but that had pushed her, over the years, into becoming the top coordinator she was today.

She vividly remembered Soledad telling her about Drew's new fixation on her. He had stopped talking about other coordinators. Just her. May also recalled the fangirl who had once asked if she liked Drew. This was one of the first times she had brought forth that memory, and she pushed it into the back of her mind like always. She didn't want to think about that right now.

Pulling herself out of her daze, she got up. It was relatively late, but she found herself sleeping less and less lately. Absentmindedly, she flipped on the TV. She was just about to switch the channel, when she saw that there was an interview with a top coordinator coming up after a commercial break. She decided it sounded interesting, so she got up to get some snacks from her bag, while the TV rambled on about a sale on pokeballs in pokemarts for a short time only. She sat down again and munched on her cookies for a moment before immediately spitting them out again. She hadn't expected to see Drew staring at her. It caught her very much off guard. What was worse was that he was staring at her like he knew she was watching, which was ridiculous. On the TV, it appeared to be mid afternoon, and Drew and the News person were standing outside of a big contest hall. Judging by the big, red ribbon he was brandishing, May could only assume that he had just won the contest that had just taken place in said contest hall.

Then, debating weather or not she could handle seeing him, she turned off the TV. Then promptly turned it off again. She repeated this pattern for several minutes, pacing around the room, before deciding she wanted to hear what he had to say, or at least the end of it.

"So what you're saying is that you really do prefer the style of contests here more than the past regions you have traveled in?"

"Yes, it is. I think the opponents are of an altogether higher level which makes it much more interesting, and I think the partner coordinating is very intriguing. I know of a few coordinators that would enjoy it. If they are watching, I hope they'll be joining me here soon," said Drew.

"Do you plan on becoming permanent partners with anyone yet?" asked the reporter.

"Maybe."

Then May turned off the TV, a newfound determination building up within her. The way he said _a few coordinators_ made her know he was talking about her. It was a challenge. She spent the rest of the night preparing for her next journey. She was leaving tomorrow.

The next night would be another sleepless one, but this time from excitement, not unhappiness. She was on the deck of the boat and was training with her pokemon. She had been working with her relatively new Chikorita on a combination of sweet scent, magical leaf and solar beam. The idea was that, while the pink, soothing sweet scent and the glowing, green magical leaf swirled around looking pretty, Chikorita would charge for the solar beam and then shoot it at the other attacks, making a small, good-smelling explosion of pink, green and silver glitter. They were still working on it.

By the time the sun came up, Chikorita was exhausted, and May had gone into complete hyper mode in anticipation of the new world she was about to see. In fact, she could already see it on the horizon. It was a world of contests and it was hers for the taking.

Grabing a bagel from the restaurant on her way out, May hurried out to look at the new place. She always got excited when she entered new contests. She was so caught up in the big city all around her, that it took a minute to register what happened when something fell into her arms. It was a single red rose.

"Eh?" she asked, looking at the rose questioningly. She looked around for a moment before immediately realizing where the rose was from.

Standing right behind her was Drew, smirking at her as usual. "Took you long enough," he said, smirk widening. Her face was priceless. It from confused about what had just happened, to happy to see him, to confused as to why he was there, to angry at his comment in just over a second. Again, priceless. She seemed to go with the why-are-you-here emotion, because the next thing she said was "why are you here?"

"I'm having you followed," he answered simply. She stared at him for a moment, looking very confused and at a loss of what to say, before he started laughing hysterically. "Of course I'm not having you followed! It was in this." He tossed her the magazine that he had been holding, which seemed to be some kind of contest magazine. She flipped it open to a page about the new top coordinators in the region. Her name was mentioned briefly and she saw the words "Drew's long time friend and rival" in there.

"Apparently they think you're something special," said Drew, shrugging. "Well, not quite as much as me. When I got off the boat there were news casters everywhere…" he looked around as though wondering where the news casters could possibly be. "They most have someone more important to talk to," he said, shrugging again, his trademark smirk back on his face.

"Did you have a reason for coming here other than bugging me!?" asked May angrily.

"Of course," said Drew, suddenly acting more mature. "Wanted to welcome you to Taschen! Since this is a big place I thought I'd show you around, if you wanted. There's a cool place where we can grab some breakfast other than that mini bagel you've got there. I can fill you in on some of the different rules."

"Thanks! That's be great! . . . why are you being so nice?" she asked suddenly.

"Because you're gonna need all the help you can get," he said, flipping his hair as he walked by. Oh dear god, you could practically _hear_ the smirk in his voice. She opened her mouth about to shout an angry retort, when he glanced back, saying "you coming or not?" She rushed to walk beside him.

A/N Soooooooo… what'd ya think!? I'm liking it so far :D wanna hear the awesome song I just wrote? Yeah? Here it is: "if you're have feed back and you know it please review! (clap clap) If you have hilarious_ subliiiiiiminal meeeeeeessaging_ flames and you know _subliiiiiiminal meeeeeeessaging_ it please review! (clap clap) if have an opinion and you know it and you really wanna show it, if you have anything to_ subliiiiiiminal meeeeeeessaging_ say please review! (clap clap clap)" Its called the review song. Its to the tune of if your happy and you know it. I just made it up. LISTEN TO IT'S ADVICE! Oh, and will someone pleas suggest a title. I really want one. I suck at titles. Anyone? Please? If you have any suggestions I would LOVE TO HEAR THEM! :D please and thank you! 3

*um… it's the beginning of what is apparently the German word for pocket monster… I lack creativity and need to look stuff up… I should just make up words in future


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I STILL don't own Pokemon so sue me and you shall be DESTROYED!!!!

A/N I got several good reviews! HUZZAH! I had a really bad day yesterday so I was sooo happy to get such good reviews. See, one review goes a LONG way. They make people HAPPY! People meaning ME! So REVIEW DAMN YOU! Sorry, that was harsh… but I think I got the message across… ;)

Chapter 2: The Taschen Region

"So let's see if I can remember," said May, getting a headache from the new rules Drew was throwing at her. "You have a partner?" he nodded. "In battle, if your partner's pokemon faints, you can keep going or surrender. In the end, the person with the most pokemon standing wins. Is that all?" she asked, hoping it was.

"That's all that really matters," said Drew, taking a bite of pancakes. They were at a small diner eating breakfast while May tried to get the rules straight.

"What if you don't have a partner?" May asked, suddenly realizing that this could potentially be a huge setback.

"There are tons of coordinators that choose to go solo. They just pair you up there. In the Ribbon Cup here they give different prizes for the solo and the partner coordinators. I personally think its better to have a permanent partner, but I'm traveling alone right now," said Drew.

"Yeah," agreed May, nodding. "I don't think I'd like working with someone new at every contest. And it would be lonely traveling alone. Well, I've traveled alone for a while now, but I prefer company." There was an awkward silence in which May sipped her orange juice thinking about how great the two of them would work together, and Drew just looked awkwardly out the window, having finished his drink and his meal already, and tried to think of the least uncomfortable way to ask his rival and longtime love interest to travel with him and be his partner. _Knowing her, she/he probably hasn't even realized how close friends we've become and how much she/he means to me. Probably still thinks of us as enemies,_ they thought simultaneously, starting to run out of non-verbal excuses to not make eye contact or say anything.

"Hey Drew/May," they started at the same time, straightening up in their seats. May blushed and Drew looked away, again not making eye contact. "You first," he said politely, looking up at her.

"We'll, I was just thinking… since we're probably heading in the same direction… we could maybe head to the next city together… it also might not be wise for me, being new her and all, to travel alone."

"Yeah, you might get lost and eaten by wild pokemon and we all know how much of a _tragedy _that would be," replied Drew, his usual confidence returning as he sneered, his voice echoing with sarcasm.

"Hmph!"

Drew giggled -well, as close to a giggle as you could expect from him- and smiled a real smile at her. "Sure. It'd be nice to have some company. Believe it or not, even _I _get lonely sometimes always traveling alone. And I honestly don't know how you've made it through two whole regions without your pep squad. You're probably still barely coping with it on the inside."

"Gah! YOU ARE SO INFURIATING!" said May, slamming her fist on the table for emphasis, and hushing up when she noticed the stares she was getting from the surrounding tables. She blushed and looked down as Drew asked for the check, still smirking slightly. He was honestly WAY too smug sometimes. He was better at getting on May's nerves than anyone else she had ever met. Except maybe the leader of his fanclub. They had had a brief encounter 3 months previously, and she still couldn't get her ears free of her annoying voice. Honestly, who did she think she was!? She acted like she owned Drew or something when he was clearly annoyed by her. Well, truthfully, he put on a happy face and pretended to like her mostly to make May jealous, but she had eventually seen through this, not being quite as dense as people seem to think. Of course, she _had _been jealous, but would never admit to it.

They spent the rest of the morning walking around town, even looking in a store for pokemon accessories, and then headed off to a park to train in the afternoon. They would get started on their journey the next day. After looking at their pokemon together and actually having the idea of being partners not opponents in their minds, it became undeniable that they would make a great pair and it was merely a question of who would suggest it first.

Drew's team consisted of Roserade, Absol, Butterfree, Ninetales, and a Dragonair. May's was Blaziken, Glaceon, Beautifly, Chikorita and Suika. Suika was interesting because she was most likely unique. May had been fortunate enough to find a pokemon egg in the forest one day, and when it hatched shortly after, she found Suika. The professors said that it appeared to be a pre-evolved form of Suikune and that it was probably one of two suikune in the world. They had pleaded with her to let them study it, but May was already too attached to Suika to let her go. It was understandable, considering Suika was about at beautiful as a Suicune, just adorable and babyish, roughly the same size as her glaceon. Looking at this pokemon lineup, the levels of the pokemon, how well they got along, and the compatibility of the types, it was obvious that this team could go straight to the top. If only one of them were bold enough to suggest it. That someone, somewhat predictably, was Drew.

"Hey… Since you're so bad in contests and the rules are different, maybe we could register as partners. I mean… just at first… not necessarily permanent," he trailed off. It wasn't as smooth as most of his insults, and the first comment didn't even phase May. She just smiled and nodded. "Good, because you'll need all the help you can get." He laughed cockily and she immediately attacked him wit suika. They battled into the evening, and after a certain point, even May was having fun, not battling because she was mad, but because she enjoyed it.

It was about 10 pm when they decided to call it a day, so they wandered over to the nearest Pokemon Center in silence, both being thoroughly exhausted.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: if you somehow have any doubts about my lack of ownership over pokemon and my NOT trying to claim that I own it, let me set things straight: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARATERS EXCEPT FOR SUICA WHO I KIND OF MADE UP! I HAVE NEVER CLAIMED OTHERWISE!

Thanks again for reviewers and this is just a pet peeve of mine and I know saying this wont stop it, but if you favorite this story, chances are you have an opinion about it…. You know… one you could voice… in a review, maybe? Please?

NOTE: if one of my friends sent you an email labeled FAILURE, I did not tell her to send that.

"UP! UP! UP!" shouted May, pushing him over off his face.

"Mghph," was Drew's response. Though this was the time he usually woke up, he had never been a morning person, and May's endless supply of energy, reminding him somewhat of a five year old, could get exhausting. *YAWN* especially this early. He rubbed his eyes, rolling over and immediately rolling back over. The windows were giving him a perfect view of the glaring morning sunlight. It blazed through the room as if purposefully trying to bother him. Mornings suck.

They spent the next hour of said sucky morning packing their small bags and plotting their route on Drew's Map. It was decided that they would go through the Locabra* Forest, stopping for lunch at a Luiseau** Lake. It was not a long enough journey that they would have to stop, so they hopped to get to Assombreia*** city with a few days to practice together before the contest next in five days. They had already chosen their Pokemon: Suika and Absol. They figured they would be a beautiful couple, and it helped that Absol and Suika had bonded, Absol acting almost like a parent to Suika, who was much younger.

This perfectly planned journey, however, did not go as perfectly as planned. At precisely 4:50, almost five hours late, they arrived at the site of their lunch, hungry and exhausted. They would have stopped earlier if it had not been for May's insistence that they were just around the corner. They had not been just around the corner at any of these points, and how exactly they got lost when they had highlighted their rout in bright green, Drew had no idea, though he guessed it had something to do with letting May guide the way, a mistake he did not plan on repeating any time soon.

As they sat down, their half-hearted bickering echoing across the beautiful lake, they unpacked their late lunch. Within ten minutes, their whole supply of food was gone, and they had left the beautiful place, still trying to reach their destination that day. With a new energy from the food, their bickering had risen to normal level again.

"…Probably held the map upside down the whole time," sneered Drew annoyed.

"Shut up! It's not like you would ever be any help anyway! You weren't offering to check the map and help out!" May souted, infuriated.

"Actually I did. You refused, or did you forget that when you forgot your sense of direction?" he smirked, loving the sight of her getting mad.

"Oh _come on!_ Can't you _not _be a jerk just this once?! You still owe me your life you know!"

Drew Scoffed. "You mean that one time you saved me? Puh-lease. I've _definitely_ returned that favor at least ten times just in the last year. I'm always saving you because, like I said, you need all the help you can get." Sneering, he marched proudly past her, swiping the map smoothly as he did so, leaving a rather dumbstruck May trailing behind him, defeated.

It was at about 9 o' clock when they finally arrived in Assombreia City. It was at this point that they learned an important thing about this region:

It hosted the WE LOVE MAY Fan Club.

Sure she had had fans before, in fact, almost as many as Drew, but before now the only notably scary group of fans she had come across was Drew's. Hers had been mostly normal people who enjoyed watching her contests and routed for her and such, occasionally sporting a hat with her name on it or a pin or a t-shirt and such, but only at big events. But as they walked into the City and were immediately bombarded with crazed fans, they could easily discern the four main groups that made up this mob:

1: The love-struck boys who were all trying to push their way to the front and throw themselves at May, who was completely speechless.

2: The love-struck lesbians, who made up a smaller group of girls throwing themselves at May, the only difference being that they seemed less interested in pummeling Drew, most likely because they were slightly more afraid of the third group than the boys were.

3: This group was Drew's. It was his fangirls. They were the scary group, and though they couldn't stand up to May's male suitors, they could stand up to the female, and would if they thought they were actually another Drew fanclub. They were also clawing at May if they couldn't get their hands on Drew.

4: This is the group that wasn't love-struck because they were either too young, too old, too gay, too straight, taken or uninterested in May and Drew, merely seeing them as role models. Lots of them were kids who were training to be coordinators some day, eagerly releasing their first pokemon to get the famous coordinator's opinions on them.

Somehow, over the heads of this mob, May recognized the platinum blonde ponytail that belonged to the single most annoying human being she had ever met. When she was it heading quickly towards Drew, she grabbed his arm and knelt down to a kid next who was standing next to her trying desperately to get attention. She whispered something into his ear, and the next thing they knew, they were in the park on the other side of town, facing a Pokemon Center just across the street.

"What just happened?" asked Drew, looking around curiously.

"Chris here helped us out! Literally. His adorable little Abra here used teleport." May patted the Abra's head and Chris blushed.

"Thanks," said Drew, sighing in relief, not seeing any fangirls in the vicinity.

"Yeah, Chris. Thanks a lot," agreed May, kneeling down to Chris' level once more, smiling at him. His blush increased, quickly approaching nose-bleed level.

"No problem… just… j-just…" he looked at the group and kicked up a stone absentmindedly… "Will you help me train for the contest!?" he asked, still blushing. He clearly idolized the both of them, and probably very shy.

"Sure," said May, smiling reassuringly at the boy. Drew didn't say anything, but he didn't object. The next day, intense training would begin for all of them… if they could escape their fans…

A/N Ok… not sure if that was my strongest chapter yet, but whatevs. I'll make a comeback later. Still waiting on the Title, by the way. I know you guys are probably waiting for some real STUFF TO HAPPEN, which it hasn't yet, but don't worry. . . I don't exactly have a plot…yet… but I will start with contests and stuff. Oh, and if your waiting for this to turn into something with magically legendaries and evil teams causing trouble, too bad. I might have some team rocket or maybe butch and Cassidy… maybe annie and okley get demoted and start posing as coordinators…maybe ill make up some villains, but they wont be the focus. It's a romance, not an adventure. Just clarifying in case you were wondering. Review! :D

*Locabra is a mix of the Spanish words loca and palabra. It means crazy word. Because it's a made up word that sounds crazy :D

** Luiseau is a mix of eau and luisant, the French words for water and glistening. I have far too much fun with names.

*** Portuguese. It's a mix of epic and amazing. I'll stop this now.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: just puttin' this out there, if I owned pokemon, things would be VERY different. Hence, I clearly don't own.

A/N lol I'm listening to Rent ("Hey mister, she's my sister!") lol. Sorry, back on track. Thank you to the people who are still reading this. I'm trying to be very quick with these updates because I am a very impatient person and I know it bothers ME when people are slow with updates. Incidentally, are any of you other contestshippers reading "A Twist of Heart?" I recommend it. But when is the next update coming!?!?!?!?!?!? Ok… calmed down. Please review! :D… sorry if im also being inconsistent with how I spell Suika/Suica… I think it was originally a k, but I forget and am too lazy to check… deal with it.

Chapter 4

Late that night they said their goodbyes to the young coordinator, Chris.

"You were great," said May, sincerely impressed. For such a young boy and such a young pokemon, they made a strong team, though he had yet to find any teammates but Abra. The boy blushed again, smiling slightly at her through his thick, red bangs. He was ten years old, just entering his first contest, and was small for his age, very shy and had thick, curly red hair, with matching eyes.

"See ya," said Drew, flicking his hair casually, giving the boy a genuine smile. He, too, saw potential in the child, if he could just get over his shyness. That, he was guessing, would be the problem later that week.

Once the boy had teleported back to his parents apartment a few blocks away, May and Drew turned in the direction of the Pokemon Center. After several minutes of walking in comfortable silence, they caught sight of the building across the street, and who should be waiting but Nova*, the leader of the Drew Fanclub. May glared, taking in the unpleasant sight, inwardly pondering weather or not to attack her before she saw them. She wore her usual blue and white, pin-striped short shorts, a hot pink crop top that read "I LOVE DREW!" in bold, green letters across her chest. Her platinum blonde hair was pulled into a high ponytail, and whipped around her face as she turned, catching sight of them.

"DREW! HONEY, OVER HERE! I TRIED TO SAY "HI" TO YOU EARLIER, BUT YOU JUST VANISHED! DID YOU NOT SEE ME?" she shouted as the ran directly at them. She leapt, causing a car to stop suddenly as she jumped across the street without looking. She ran into Drew, flinging her arms around him. May could see Drew tense up. She knew that he wasn't very comfortable with hugs unless they were very close. He did not, however push her away, which made May unhappy. Nova smirked over Drew's shoulder.

"Hi Nova," said Drew unenthusiastically, shrugging her off as he said it. He had given up on pretending he was interested in her ages ago. He was never outwardly rude to a fan, but she really bothered him. She was the one fan of Drew's that he really honestly disliked. Being Drew, he loved having fangirls, but he didn't love his fangirls personally, as they all seemed to think. Nova just tired him out and, truth be told, annoyed her more than anyone.

"Drew, didja miss me?" asked Nova, attempting to grab Drew's hand, which he avoided by flipping his hair with that hand just in time. She pouted a bit, and forced him to link arms with her, making May more furious by the second. "Did you?" she asked again.

"What, miss you? Since I saw you three days ago?" asked Drew.

"Yes! I know I missed you," said Nova as they crossed the street with May just behind them.

Now they were just in front of the door, and May was about to interrupt them when Drew beat her to it. "May and I are pretty tired from training together, so we're gonna head in now, maybe order some room service, sound good, May?" Drew asked, literally shaking Nova's arm off his own.

"Sounds good," said May, accidentally saying it angrily because she was glaring at Nova. It was true, however, that they hadn't eaten since their quick late lunch. With saying this, May grabbed a shocked Drew and made to drag him through the door.

"Oh- Bye! Love you! I'll be in the contest on Friday! I won't go easy on you, but I would be happy even if I lost and you won!" When Nova said this, May stopped and smirked, remembering something Nova didn't know.

"Thank you," said May, looking back. "We're so happy to have your support," she continued in a sickeningly sweet voice, almost laughing out loud at the confused expression on Nova's face. Deciding to let her stew in this confusion until Friday, May didn't elaborate, instead just walking straight into the Pokemon Center, still smirking.

"She's gonna be pretty pissed," said Drew, laughing a bit. He had been watching May and Nova with amusement. "Why would you be so cruel to her? It couldn't be that your jealous, could it?" asked Drew, raising his eyebrow and smirking.

"Wha-What!? No! I-I'm not," May stuttered, blushing furiously. Drew laughed, and headed toward the counter, grabbing May's hand.

"Honestly, it's your fault I do this," he said, leaning on the counter while he waited for Nurse Joy, not noticing that he had forgotten to let go of May's hand. "If you weren't so easy and hilarious to mess with, I wouldn't" he said simply. After a moment, he added, "that, _and_ I had to say it. I mean, it was painfully obvious that you were jealous. Seriously, it must be embarrassing to be so hopelessly obvious about your emotions all the time, May. I sorta feel bad for you." The impressive thing was that he said that all with a perfectly straight face. May was about to snap back, still blushing intensely, when Nurse Joy appeared at the counter.

"May I help you?" she asked, smiling at the two sweetly.

"yes," said Drew, May still being temporarily too angry to calmly ask for a room. "We called for a room? Two beds, the name is Drew."

"We did?" asked May, calming down suddenly.

"_I_ did," said Drew. "It was when you were deciphering the simpleist map ever made, but I wouldn't expect you to be able to read a map and take in any of your surroundings at the same time. That would be ridiculously overestimating the powers of your mind." He smirked and flipped his hair, releasing May's hand. It was then that they both realized that they had been holding hands in the first place. May would have been yelling back at Drew, but now they were both too busy blushing. They were really both quite dense and awkward for 16-year-olds. They were more like nine year olds and their first crush… just more awkward.

Nurse Joy, again, coming to the rescue, interrupted the awkwardness. "I found your reservation! Here's your key, its just down the hall."

"Thanks," said May and Drew together, still a bit red. Both reaching for the key, their hands touched. They blushed some more. Joy giggled, and handed May the key.

Once they had set up all their stuff in their room, they had gotten comfortable around each other again. May was impressed that the Pokemon Centers in this region had room service. They ordered and sat in silence for a while they waited for the food. This silence was broken by a beeping noise from Mays bag.

"It's a text from Max, seeing what's up." She paused for a moment before she sweatdropped.

"Let me guess," said Drew, smirking. "you forgot to tell the family and pep squad where you were headed?" She nodded, before texting back where she was and what was going on,.

"So how is the kid?" asked Drew.

"Max?" asked May, surprised that Drew cared. Drew gave her a what-do-you-think kind of look. "He's great! He started his pokemon journey with a Treeko, and he's traveling with Ash and Misty."

"What about that squinty dude who never liked me?"

"He left. He's actually been dating this girl, Melanie, for about a year now. They own a small pokemon daycare and clinic. He seems really happy. What about you? Family? Friends, I doubt, seeing as you're a total jerk, but you must have some family."

Drew glared for a moment, before reaching into his pocket and taking out a wallet. He opened it to reveal a credit card, some cash and a picture of a young girl of about eight or nine. She had pale pink hair tied into two, curly pony tails on either side of her head and bangs falling just above her deep, emerald eyes. She was in a slightly younger looking Drew's arms, wearing a light purple dress that went nicely with his outfit that had changed, but had the same old color scheme. "Rosalind, my sister," said Drew, smiling in a way May rarely saw from him. "This was taken last time I went home, on her ninth birthday. I was almost 15." Drew's look changed to sad.

"That was a while ago," she said.

"Yeah, but when she turned ten I called, and I sent her her first pokemon, like I promised. It was… a wurmple. She always wanted a Beautifly just like you, but I told her it would be stronger and have a closer bond with her if she raised it from a wurmple. I also told her that's what you did. I think she's almost as big a fan of you as she is of me," he smiled, as did may. At that point the food came, and they spent the rest of the night until past one talking about there families and eating the food. May was so happy to learn more about Drew, who rarely opened up. What was more, they made it all night without arguing once.

*I was gonna go with a more feminine name, but (omg, this song makes me want to cry…) I saw nova and it turns out it's a native American girls name meaning butterfly chaser. I thought that was too perfect. Like, because of May's Beautifly? They're natural enemies now! :D

Someone says that I should just call it To Be Announced. (not all caps) I think that actually might work, but I also might end up with something else, idk. I'm indecisive. What do you think? Please review!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I own pokemon only, I repeat, ONLY in my dreams… those dreams are kind of awesome… :D

A/N I AM SOOOO SORRY ITS BEEN TAKING THIS LONG. I started a book ive been reading and ive had finals and tons of stuff to worry about so I haven't been writing much. OMG! SIMS 3 COMES OUT TOMORROW! ARENT U ALL EXCITED! I AM! I REALLY AM! Ok… on with the daml:

Chapter 5

It was the day before the contest, and Drew and May were hard at work to perfect their opening performance. It was a combination of Suika's bubblebeam and rain dance, and Absol's sunny day and ice beam. The idea was that Suika would use bubblebeam and the bubbles would be frozen in mid air by the ice beam, turning them into floating orbs of ice. Then Suika would use rain dance as Absol used sunny day and it would rain and be sunny at the same time and the sun would make all the water and ice shimmer beautifully and the judges would love it etc.

They would get it. Eventually. The main problem they were facing now was the freezing of the bubbles. It was pretty inconsistent. They had gotten it perfectly on the first try, but then realized it had been a fluke when Absol missed half the bubbles the second time and they merely popped before they could fix the error. Next, Absol, attempting to make up for the previous failure, obliterated the bubbles with a far too powerful ice beam. Next she took it down a notch, but missed a few, and used to much ice on several, weighing them down and making them shatter on the ground. This was making Absol disheartened and that was making her loose focus. Hence, another hour of trial and error ensued. Today they still needed to get to the sun/rain part of the show, which it would clearly fail without.

"Okay, Suika! One more time! Lets have a bubblebeam!" Obediently, Suika showered the "stage" (an open space in the park that was roughly the same size as a contest stage that they had been using to practice all week) with shimmering bubbles of every size.

"Absol, freeze 'em with your ice beam, now!"

"Soooool!" cried Absol, a look of utter concentration on her face as a beam of freezing cold air and ice shot from her mouth, not popping the delicate bubbles, and hitting all of them. May and Drew were beaming, but couldn't get distracted.

"Suika, show us your raindance!" shouted May, twirling as she said "raindance," just for emphasis. Just as Mays twirl came to a stop, Suika copied her, spun on the spot, and summoned rain. (I actually totally forget how this move works or looks, so she pretty much just summoned the rain…. Yeah) Just as it started to rain, little droplets of water clinging to the hollow balls of ice suspended in the air, Absol leapt into the air.

"Great, Absol. Now use your sunny day!" commanded Drew, pointing at Absol as he did so. Absol did so, and before the sky could cloud up, she turned the downpour into a lovely sun shower, the light bouncing off the crystal-like orbs and, to top it all off, forming a huge rainbow in the background of it all.

"YES!" shouted May, leaping into the air and catching Suika in her arms, giving her a bone-crushing hug. Drew smiled and patted Absol on the back affectionately. He and May exchanged a quick, slightly awkward hug. Several of the passers by clapped politely, and children gaped open-mouthed.

"MOMMY! THEY MADE PRETTY COLORS APPEAR EVERYWHERE!"

"Yes they did," replied the mother, chuckling.

"MAMMA! _EVERYWHERE_," repeated the boy, as though she clearly hadn't really understood how cool it really was. May giggled, making Drew's grin widen.

After stopping to enjoy their victory for a while, they went back to training. Though they had a few more failed attempts, it didn't take long for them to have it down to a science, somehow making it even more lovely every time the repeated it. Practice really does make perfect, which is something you have to learn to be a coordinator.

"Training really works up an appetite, eh, Drew?" said May enthusiastically, as they were seated in a pizza place just down the block from the Pokemon Center.

"I guess," said Drew casually, flipping his hair as usual.

When the pizza came, May dug into her deep-dish, pepperoni pizza immediately, while Drew poured some dressing onto his salad and took a bite out of his slice of pesto pizza. (Drew is my favorite, so he has to eat my favorite pizza… its also green) After a moment, he paused, looking up at May with a thoughtful look on his face. It took May a few seconds to realize this, but when she did, she looked up at him questioningly.

"Fwey avren jyoum etig?" she asked, before immediately sweatdropping. She choked down the large bit of Pizza before straightening up and trying again.

"Why aren't you eating?" she asked.

"I was just thinking…" he said vaguely, glancing out the window.

"What of?" asked May.

"Just about that time we fell into that river."

"Why were you thinking about that?" continued May, now curious.

Drew glanced up, making eye contact with her as he said "I was really just wondering how you managed to stay afloat, eating like that…" That took a minute to register with May, but when it did, Drew received a pepperoni to the eye.

"Crossing a line, Drew! Crossing a line!" shouted May indignantly, looking angrily at Drew and then pouting down at her pizza sadly. Drew happily ate his salad in victory for a few minutes before looking up at May, who was still neglecting her pizza.

"I was just kidding, ya know," he said, smirking at her from across the table. "I mean, you _do _eat like a gulpin, but by all means, continue. You're so hyper, you need all those calories just to get through the day without exhausting yourself completely. If you ate normally, you wouldn't have that crazy energy the judges see something in… I don't know what…" She glared at him to say that she got the picture. She was hyper. She ate a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Despite her fading grumpiness, she heeded his words and dug into the pizza once more, though this time slightly more gracefully.

After the meal, the pair walked around the town for a while, deciding to leave their pokemon for a break at the Pokemon Center. They went everywhere in town, not having anywhere in particular that they needed to be.

"Hehehehehe…" giggled May, taking a big lick of her strawberry ice cream.

"Hm?" asked Drew, glancing at her over his own ice cream, and speaking through a bite.

"You've got ice cream in your hair… hehehe… but I could only tell because of the chocolate chip… hehehe… because the mint part is the same color as your hair… hahahaha!" Drew sweatdropped.

"Where is it?" asked Drew, unimpressed. He flicked his hair, and did, indeed, feel sticky ice cream in it. Great. He would need to wash it out later.

May, still giggling, and unable to resist, reached over and grabbed the chunk of chocolate, popping it into her mouth happily.

"It's like a chocolate covered strawberry… only a strawberry covered chocolate! Hahaha!"

"The sugar's gone to your brain, hasn't it?" asked Drew, noting the extra crazy in what she was saying. He stopped. "And that was really gross! That was in my hair! And probably on my tongue! You don't know where my tongue had been!" He paused for a moment, rethinking what he had just said.

"HAHAHAHAHAAAHHHAHAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!" laughed May, crying with laughter. "I'm actually much more worried about your _hair!_" she said, still chuckling. "You probably use more product than I do! And, seriously, is that your natural color?" she asked, giggling all the while.

He gave her an are-you-kidding-me? Look, and said "a few days ago I showed you a picture of my nine year old sister with pink hair. What do you think?"

"Oh… right…" said May, a blank expression on her face.

They spent the whole day goofing off, and wandering around the town. Eventually, they got some pasta at an Altamarian restaurant (I figured they don't have Italy…) and went to bed early, to ensure they had full energy for the contest the next day.

"Good night," whispered Drew, climbing into bed.

"Sweet… **yaaawn** sweet dreams… Drew…" said May, already drifting off into sleep.

A/N I hope you enjoyed it. Please review. The usual stuff. I'm probably gonna make the name To Be Announced, but I haven't gotten around to un-capitalizing it all yet… ill update soon 


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't… not… un-own pokemon…?

A/N Thank you too all of you that review. Oh, and just so you know, I know some people are like "I finished that fic ages ago. Why are they still reviewing! Just leave me alone" (someone told me this once) but when this fic is done, and u r reading it (I hope) Please keep reviewing!

Chapter six

Though it wasn't necessarily all relevant to her, May couldn't help but go over how the new contests worked. The people entering with partners would perform first, in a random order, followed by the singles, going by themselves. Then all the singles would get paired randomly with another single, and they would have a half an hour to get to know each other while there was an intermission. If there were an odd number of single coordinators, the last one could choose to either use two pokemon by themselves, or use the extra coordinator they had hired. There was some complex system going on there with the singles that was designed to make everything fair, but May decided she really didn't need to care about that.

Drew smiled at her, obviously lost in thought. He walked over to her and removed her bandana from her head, as she tied her shoes. It took her a minute, but she looked up and asked, "What was that for?" indignantly.

"For starters, someone needed to bring you down from la-la-land some time this year. Also, those aren't the right shoes. Remember, you were going to wear the other ones to go with your outfit?" she looked down and blushed, realizing that he was quite right. "Oh, and your bandana was inside-out," he said, smiling and tying it onto her head much more neatly, before she could even react.

"Does the bandana even look good?" she asked, looking at herself in the mirror.

"Well," started Drew. "I think I've always voiced my opinion that it is goofy looking ALL the time, so to answer your question, I think you could do better."

She made a small noise of frustration, before ripping off the bandana. Drew sighed, and sat her down, away from the mirror. "Wha-?" she asked.

"Just wait a sec," he said, cutting her off. She sat sliently for a minute or two while she felt her hair being twisted and turned in Drew's hands. When he was done, he brought her to the mirror again, and she squealed in delight. Similarly to the other regions, formal dress was not required, but in this region, it would stand out horribly to dress casually, and would be considered bad etiquette by some.

May was wearing a short, red dress with pretty ruffles along the bottom. It was sleeveless and had a collar as well, which fit very well with Mays style. Now, to top it off, he hair was tied in an elegant bun, with her side bangs framing her face and a red rose, to match her dress, tucked safely behind her ear.

Drew was wearing a dark grey, pinstriped suit with a green tie and another red rose in the lapel. They both looked fabulous, and the outfits looked great together.

"You nervous?" asked Drew, smiling at her in a way he rarely did.

"O-of course not!" said May, blushing. Drew smirked.

"You know, I wasn't really asking," he said, walking up to her.

"I guess the first contest of a new region always makes me nervous," she admitted with a small giggle. Then Drew surprised her by wrapping his arms around her, and looking her reflection in the eyes.

"We'll be fine." He sounded kind and sincere for a moment, before going back to normal. "I mean, seriously, you've got me. Even a case as helpless as yours can't loose with _me _on your team." He smirked and she tossed his arms off of her, laughing good-naturedly for once, rather than snapping back.

After a quick breakfast, the pair headed across town to the large, beautiful contest hall of Assombreia City. It was a large building that was swarming with coordinators. Some, May and Drew recognized from past contests or TV. Many were young coordinators just starting on their journeys.

"Chris!" said May, giving the shy boy a hug when she saw him.

"Hey," said Drew, smiling down at him. He looked really nervous, but also adorable in his little black tuxedo.

"Hi," he said quietly, shuffling uncomfortably. They went together to check the screen to see what the order was. May and Drew were second in the partner pairs, and Chris was the first single. Nova was the third single. They all took their seats and prepared their pokemon for the contest, some putting ribbons on them, some feeding pokeblocks or having mini battles.

The first people went as Drew and May were tying a pink ribbon to Suica and a light green ribbon to Absol. The first pair was identical twin sisters named Mary and Maria. Their two Pichus attempted some elaborate lightning show but ended up shocking themselves. They came back crying slightly, disheartened by their failure. Drew and May would've felt sorry for them, had they not been worrying about their own routine. They were sure they could nail it, but that didn't stop them from feeling the usual nervousness as they stood on the steps just off the stage, awaiting their announcement.

"Alright! Let's hear it for our lovely, young twins: Mary and Maria!" The announcer paused for the tremendous applauds, accompanied by the audible sobs of their mother ringing throughout the audience. "Ok, folks! Next up, all the way from Hoenn, are our next amazing pair, and ex rivals, Drew and May! Come on out!" There were more thunderous applauds as the two stepped onto the stage with linked arms, waving and showing their most confident smiles to their fans. As the crowd quieted, Drew and May took out their pokeballs and enlarged them simultaneously,

"Suica, take the stage!" shouted May, spinning as she threw the ball into the air. With a flash of glowing, red light, Suica appeared, doing a double back-flip to land gracefully on the stage.

"Ok, Absol! You're up!" shouted Drew, throwing the ball across the stage. Absol appeared and landed in one swift motion, skidding about a yard from where she landed. Drew and May caught the returning pokeballs at precisely the same time, and went on with the appeal.

Once the impressive combo of bubbles and ice had taken place, they used sunny day and rain dance, producing the most beautiful rainbow yet. More stunning than any of the previous displays during their rehearsals. Smiling glowingly, the two of them stepped off the stage.

"Give it up for this phenomenal pair of May and Drew! Incidentally, Suica is a new breed of pokemon and you are the first public audience to see it! Make some noise for this young new find, and the latest up and coming coordinators of our own Taschen region!" The crowd went wild once more and the next group was announced.

Drew and May were happy that that part was done and they were sure they were in. Next up: The battles.

A/N OMG! Drew finally showed his kinder side and May, in turn, has started to learn how to take jokes! They're getting along! Shifting in their relationship!

Just because, these are what drew and may are wearing

Drew is wearing a mix of these two links. The first suit, only with the color and pattern of the second one (and a green tie)

.com/sheknowsbest/files/2007/07/avant_

.

may is wearing something a little bit like this but not exactly. I couldn't find exactly what I envisioned, but I like the skirt and color.

./0/0,0,303,19648,480,717,


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: .snorom uoy ,nomekop nwo ton od I**

**A/N Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I was in London and then I was busy with another fic. BTW, I'm thinking of doing another Harry Potter 2****nd**** gen. Should I do a Vicki/Teddy or something funny about Roxanne and Fred? I think I've started little experimental things for both, but I really like those characters and wanna post something about them. Maybe just a oneshot… xoxo enjoy the chapter :D**

Chapter 7

After another few groups of partners, the singles started. That meant Chris.

"Go Chris! Don't be nervous, you'll be great," said May as he passed her. Drew said nothing, but clapped the shy, young boy on the back, smiling warmly at him. Missing his sister had given him a soft spot over the years for younger kids, though he would never admit this to anyone, least of all the girl sitting beside him who was giggling a bit at seeing him act so nice. He just glared back at her, and May shut up instantly, but remained smiling.

"Come on out, Abra!" shouted Chris, his voice sounding more confident than usual, but still too quiet to carry well throughout the large building. The small creature came out, and sensing her masters nervousness, almost froze as she appeared on stage, but then Chris gave her the command with confidence in his voice, and shouted loudly enough for everyone to hear him this time. "Abra, use teleport!" And with that he threw a handful of small, colorful balls into the air, and no sooner did they spread out above the stage, did Abra teleport to each one individually, going so fast that you barely saw the pokemon itself, but just a blur and then all the balls were gone before a single one hit the ground.

"Great," said Chris, looking relieved that the beginning of his routine was going as planned. "Now use fling and trick room!"

Instantly, all the balls were flung across the room, and almost immediately after, slowed down. A grid appeared around the room and the balls went into slow motion. (Lets pretend that's actually how trick room works… pretty please?)

"Great job! Now finish it off with shock wave!" Abra nodded and spun as an enormous shock wave swept throughout the stage causing small explosions wherever the balls had been slowly floating away were electrified and vanished in a puff of smoke. Even as this beautiful event took place, the whole thing was intensified by a glowing light from center stage. When the popping and buzzing from the electricity stopped, the stage was covered by a light veil of smoke through which the figure of a larger pokemon was clearly visible.

"KADABRA!" she roared, and the crowd burst into applauds as Chris hugged his newly evolved Pokemon and walked off stage.

"Come on, folks! You can do better! Let's really hear it for that first time performance by Chris and his brand-new Kadabra!" The crowd continued to cheer until Marissa, a tall, skinny girl with jet black hair walked on stage with her pokeball in hand. Her appeal started promisingly, before she accidentally fell onto her pokemon when her foot caught on the hem of her evening gown and she threw off the whole thing. The audience clapped politely, but not as enthusiastically as before.

"Alright. Great job Marissa! Next up, all the way from Hoenn, is the ever-lovely Nova!" Nova, who had been waiting on the stairs, straightened up and walked on stage, flaunting her nice figure and her obviously expensive pink, silk cocktail dress*, glancing back to pointedly direct a smirk at May, who glared back, moving closer to Drew. She waved at the audience, flashing a bright smile at them with all of her teeth.

"Magcargo, let's show 'em how it's done!" she shouted, twirling as she threw the ball up above her.

"CARGO!" shouted the huge, fiery, slug appeared on stage.

"Alright! You know the plan! Rock throw and ember, go!" Some of the crowd gasped as rocks and flame were thrown throughout the air and just as quickly coming back down. Nova cleverly let the fans wait in suspense while the dust cleared, and she was revealed to be standing on a large boulder behind a huge pile of stones that were stil glowing with the fiery embers caused by the attacks. Magcargo was nowhere to be seen.

Nova gave the audience a look of utmost confidence. "Now! Show us your lava plume and earth power!" The moment she said this, the pile of rocks erupted into flames, the embers glowing dangerously, and the rocks exploded, some being propelled violently away from the center of the stage where the large slug was becoming visible. Other rocks were flung into the air by small eruptions appearing all over the ground.

"Now finish it off with sandstorm!" shouted Nova, who was still standing on the only intact boulder on stage, safe from the dangerous looking explosions as the audience due to the intense training of her pokemon.

Magcargo instantly nodded and a tornado of sand, so powerful everything on stage became invisible, formed around where the pokemon stood. When the intense storm cleared, all that was left was dark sand and dust from the rocks that had been completely worn away, smoothed, shiny pebbles, a small desert of sand, and the remaining embers from the mostly extinguished fire. In a small clearing in the middle of the stage was Magcargo with Nova resting happily on its shell, how she got through the storm to her faithful pokemon, only the two of them knew. It was a truly stunning show, and even May was awestruck.

"Great job," said Drew, throwing her a dashing smile, just for the sake of it.

"Thanks," she said, winking at him and smirking at May. "Good luck, you two. I'll see you at the final round."

"Good luck to you, too, because you're gonna need it if you wanna get anywhere near the last round." The two glared at each other, and Drew, who was quite enjoying this, sat between them with a smug expression fixed firmly on his face. Nova was the first to break eye contact, smiling and winking once more as she walked away with a little bounce in her step.

"What are you smirking at!?" yelled May, catching a glimpse of Drew's face as he continued to look smug.

"Just a bit amused that you're _still _jealous of that bitch*" he said, flicking his hair in that annoying way that was only his.

"Who are you calling jealous!" shouted May, face flushed as she stormed off angrily.

"Girls," muttered Drew, rolling his eyes.

Over on the farthest corner of the room where the coordinators stayed, May watched some good, great, bad and terrible coordinators finish up before the short intermission during which the final 8… rather, 16 coordinators would be announced.

The first face to appear on the screen was her own, followed almost immediately by Drew's, then, to her disgust, but not surprise, came Nova's picture in which she was all done up with excessive eye makeup and lipstick for the picture. Then came a young married couple, the man, Eric, first, followed by his wife, Christina. Then, to May's delight, was Chris, who looked nervous in his picture. Then there were a few other pairs, one of whom she recognized vaguely as including a previous opponent from another region. The last few were singles, and finally, all sixteen, talented coordinators had been chosen, and many of the others who hadn't made it were crying, left calmly, or congratulated friends and went to watch from the audience.

Next, the six singles were assigned pairs: Julie and Mark, Dan and Max, **Nova and Chris.**

* .?irn=2501&size=276x350

*hehehe… it just occurred to me that since there are no dogs in the world of pokemon and that means female dog… that word doesn't exist… lol


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer, short & sweet: I DO **_**NOT**_ **POKEMON!**

**A/N Tralalalala I am having fun with this fic and am actually planning ahead for once and I think some people will be happy with a twist I decided to ad to the ending : )**

Chapter EIGHT

The first fight was a pair of siblings against Nova and Chris, who seemed petrified at the prospects of both going first and being paired with the scary person he had seem clawing through a crowd just to see Drew. The other team, Andy, the older brother, and Angela, who seemed to be a beginner, were feeding their pokemon last minute pokeblocks and the elder of the two was saying reassuring things to the small, redheaded girl.

"Chris," said May as Chris walked past her. He turned to face her, his nerves showing visibly in his eyes. "You'll be ok. And," she whispered this part, "You _and_ your partner are good coordinators. You'll do really well, I'm sure of it." He smiled a bit, and then ran to catch up with his partner, who was showing no signs of waiting for him.

"Hurry up, kid. You'll make me late," she said, not even looking back as she kept walking determinedly towards the stage. Chris ran forward to catch up, and walked right behind her as they, simultaneously to the other pair, stepped onto the brightly lit stage on opposite sides.

"Here they are! On my left, we have first-time coordinator, Chris, fighting along side finalist from two ribbon cups in Johto and Sinnoh, Nova!" Claps. Cheers. Drew's fanclub shouting and hording up "Go Nova" and "WE LOVE DREW!" posters that were blocking the annoyed people behind thems view. "And on my right are Andy, who participated in the (insert made up region name here) ribbon cup, with his adorable little sister, Angela, who has participated in two contests before and won her first ribbon last week!" More cheers and claps. No signs or fanclubs. "Ok! LETS BEGIN!"

"MAGCARGO! LET'S SHOW 'EM HOW IT'S DONE!"

"COME ON OUT, AB- I MEAN ALAKAZAM!"

"GET 'EM, LOTAD!"

"LET'S GO, HITMONTOP!"

All the pokemon emerged, and the trainers caught their pokeballs and got ready to fight.

"Magcargo, hit Hitmontop with a flamethrower!" said Nova confidently. Chris, smiled as well, but then noticed Hitmontop spinning to dodge it before Nova did.

"Alakazam! Teleport!" Alakazam understood, and appeared across the stage, blocking the dodge effectively and pushing the smaller pokemon into the attack, but getting kicked in the process. Both the teams meters went down, but the siblings went down significantly more.

As the battle went on, Nova started begrudgingly working with Chris and it was helpful that Alakazam was very strong against Hitmontop. It was a relatively easy win, and most of the crowd was unsurprised, and clapped happily.

"Heh," snickered, looking at the little girl who looked tearful, and the brother who was encouraging her and praising her fighting. Chris walked away from his partner, who didn't seem to care, towards the other pair.

"Hey," he said, shyly, blushing and noticing for the first time that the other girl was, in fact, quite pretty. "You two were great. We were lucky that we happened to get put with a type advantage. If we hadn't had a-an Alakazam, and I had used my… my pidgy instead, you would've won."

"Thanks," she said, smiling a bit and blushing as well. "You were really great, though. I'm sure you would've won anyways." They stood there, blushing in silence for a few seconds in which Andy watched them in amusement and Nova started glaring at the girl in annoyance.

"Oi! Kid! Quit talking to those losers. You'll make me look bad." Chris blushed deeper and shrugged apologetically.

"See you later."

"Bye…" she replied, waving a bit as he walked away, not to his partner, but to May.

"That was very nice of you," said May to the shy little boy, letting him sit in her lap and hugging him. "Very gentlemanly. Don't listen to Nova. I think you really made her feel better, see?" she pointed, and, following her eyes and hand, he saw that, sure enough, Angela was no longer crying, and was chatting and smiling with her brother as they went to watch the rest of the show from the seats with the audience. 'Thank you,' mouthed Andy when he caught Chris' eye, and the little kid smiled happily.

Chris, May and Drew, who had ruffled the kids hair, but remained silent, all watched the next few teams go. The first one Chris saw, having missed one while talking to Angela, was a pair of people who had clearly never met before, and it seemed that they weren't good at adjusting to each others pokemon or styles, against an elderly, married couple who had fought together for years, and though they had never won a ribbon cup, they had come close quite a few times. Clearly, the latter won. Next up were tow pairs that were relatively evenly matched as far as talent goes, and both were singles that had been paired together, but in the end, one of the pairs had a type advantage with water against fire, and they won. Next up was a very close match between two pairs that had registered together, and in the end, it was almost a draw, but in the last two seconds on the clock, the two girls who had been best friends since preschool got in one last hit, and they pulled ahead just enough to win.

Next up was the wonderful pair of Drew and May.

"C'mon, May. We're up," Said Drew, a determined smirk already fixed on his face as he cast an intimidating look over to his opponents who were already walking to their side of the stage.

"Mhm. Let's go," replied May, putting Chris on the bench by himself and walking fast to catch up with Drew.

"Up next we have our young friends, Thomas and Max who have come all the way from Kanto and are in their first tournament ever, only one ribbon from qualifying for the cup, and as their opponents we have the very well known May and Drew, both ribbon cup-winners and one of them, brand new to our lovely region! Lets hear it for these two amazing pairs!"

"I LOVE YOU DREW!" shouted one of the fangirls in a shrill voice that was loud enough to carry over the thunderous applauds. Drew gave her a dashing smile and winked at her, immediately resulting in her fainting and probably missing the actual battle.

Within the first minute, the boy's, Max's, Duskull was taken out by a combination of Absol's sucker punch and Suica's shadow ball, both being super effective and dealt by exceedingly strong pokemon. The next pokemon was Parasect, who had the type advantage, but, after a decent amount of damage taken, Drew and May managed to knock it out with the only moves they knew that could even do damage.

"Absol! Rock tomb!"

"Suica! Aurora Beam!"

And that won them the match, and got them into the next round.

"Too easy," said Drew, sneering as they walked off the stage to the announcers comments and the crowds applauds. May nodded, but then smiled kindly at the two younger boys on the other side of the stage. They shrugged, returning the smile, and Thomas still holding his parasect. It was them wordlessly saying that it was a good match and they couldn't win them all.

Now, for May, Drew, Nova, Chris and a few other lucky and talented coordinators, it was on to the next set of battles.

**A/N Soooooo… yup. That is my wondrous chapter. Hope u liked. I liked writing it. Review, please! You know how I looooove reviews! :D **


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: See previous chapters.**

**A/N yay! Another chapter. . . . wow. That's actually all I have to say at the moment… enjoy!**

**Chapter 9 (I think its nine… is it nine? It is, right?)**

The next few rounds went by quickly, and, unsurprisingly, it wasn't long before Drew and May found themselves in the final round, their opponents none other than Nova and Chris.

"Alakazam! Light screen!" shouted Chris, protecting himself and his teammate as his inhibitions slowly faded away. He had seemingly forgotten his shyness, the fact that he didn't like his teammate, quite liked his opponents and that thousands of people were watching, and had finally let go, giving this battle his all.

"Great! Now, Magcargo, use overheat!" a wave of fiery heat swept from the slug pokemon, doing a decently small amount of damage to Suica, while knocking Absol, and their points, down.

"Suica, use water pulse!" shouted May to her darling, little pokemon in a defensive position in front of the recovering Absol.

"Suiiiii!" cried the small, blue pokemon, a wave of water emerging from it and rushing at her opponents. It hit Magcargo directly, and while Alakazam teleported to avoid the full blast, it was still damaged and their points took a considerable drop.

"Ok, now, Absol! Thunder!" yelled Drew to his own pokemon, pointing his finger at them as he did so. The lightning hit both of them, full on, and the fact that both were drenched in water made the blast all the more effective, the combo putting May and Drew far into the lead.

"Dammit!" swore Nova loudly, startling her young partner, before regaining her composure and fighting back intensely. "Magcargo! OVERHEAT AGAIN!"

"Raindance, Suica!" countered May, ferocity in her voice that took Drew by surprise, but he sneered, knowing that she had noticed the same thing he had. Magcargo had taken a bad hit, and telling it to do such a forceful move in its state had been a rookie mistake that neither of their opponents had seemed to realize yet. When Magcargo tried to attack, however, nothing happened. The judges gasped, watching as the pokemon sunk to the ground, not fainting, but unable to attack, being weakened, and its power cut by the rain falling from seemingly nowhere.

"Absol! Hyper beam! Now!" Obediently, Absol reared back and let out a mighty roar, a blinding ray of light and power streaming from its open mouth, hitting Magcargo and Kadabra dead-on. After this attack, it fell back, behind Suica, and rested there, exhausted from it's most powerful attack.

May and Drew, seeing the other pokemon unconscious, turned their heads to the score boards, like most of the audience, and were shocked when they saw that the battle was still on and that Kadabra had yet to fall. May looked back just in time to hear a shout.

" Phsycic!" shouted Chris in a final attempt to do some damage before his weakened pokemon gave in.

Suica, without-instruction and caught off guard, stood, petrified, as the wave of kadabras power rushed towards her. Suddenly the resting Absol perked up, leapt from where it had placed itself, and assumed a protective position in front of the younger pokemon, blocking the attack and taking no damage itself.

Then, to top it all off, kadabra swayed on the spot, wobbled, and fell over, knocked out. May and Drew had won.

"YES!" shouted May, punching the air and doing an impressive pirouette. Drew flicked his hair, smirking and waving to the crowd. Said crowd was, in fact, going completely insane.

"I LOVE YOU DREW!" shouted one of the fanclub girls, who had, supposedly, been routing for Nova, but then couldn't resist Drew's charms in the end. Drew muttered something like "Of coarse you do" in a smug voice as he walked off the stage followed shortly by May. She had been the only person to hear his remark, and, had she not been in an exceptionally good mood because of the contest, probably would have been very mad at him.

May and Drew stood on the stage and accepted their ribbons to thunderous applauds from their fans. As the pair stepped off stage, May looked down at her ribbon, admiring it. It was the first she had won in Taschen. It was bigger than the last region's, and slightly smaller than the ones before that. It was green, with a gold stripe down the middle, the center held together by a small, golden Rose, which, it so happened, was the symbol of Taschen, and appeared on the flag. May smiled. Drew noticed this, seeing her look at the rose, and slipped on he had been holding into the hand that was not carrying the ribbon.

"Great job," he said sincerely, smiling at her. She blushed, but her smile almost turned into a grin.

They grabber their bags as they walked through the waiting room and headed straight for the door, but not before they saw Nova, looking very, very pissed off. That made May's day even more than the win.

"Hey, Drew, where are you going?" asked May, as she and Drew both made to turn different ways. "The hotel's this way." She pointed left, where she had been going.

"And celebratory ice cream is this way," replied drew, pointing right. May grinned, and he returned it. They headed right.

That night, they went back to their room in the Pokemon Center, still giddy with their success, and, most likely, the large amounts of sugar they had consumed. That was the only circumstance in which Drew was ever _giddy_. He hid his intense susceptibility to sugar-highs well. Until now, that is.

"And then she was just, like, 'omigod! I can't believe they, like, beat me! Cause I'm so perfect! And awesome!'" said May as they walked through the door, doing a funny, if rather exaggerated impression of Nova. Drew giggled… in a totally manly way, of course. "I hope Chris is okay," said May, momentarily regaining her composure (she, too, had been giggling). "I guess we kind of ran out of there after accepting our ribbon." Drew stopped giggling, too, and suddenly felt kind of bad about leaving without so much as a 'good job, Chris.'

"Yeah… we did."

"We can tell him later," said May, shrugging. Then there was a comfortable silence. Then there was an awkward silence. Then May broke it with the first thing that popped into her head: "Let's play truth or dare!" Under normal circumstances, Drew would have been able to say no. He was, in fact, a strong enough person that he said no anyways. Under normal circumstances he would have been able to stand by this. No such luck.

"Plee_eeeaase_!" said May, pouting slightly. He just sighed in defeat. She squealed in victory. "Ok, ladies first!" said May.

"Isn't it usually the… guy who says that?" said Drew, exasperated. May shrugged.

"Ok: Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"You're so boring."

"Everyone says truth. Saying 'dare' can't be boring." As an afterthought, he added "and I'm never boring."

"Whatever. Jump out the window!"

"What now?"

"Juuuump. Ouuuut. Wiiiindow."

"That wasn't even a sentence… and HELL NO."

"Beautifly will catch you!"

"I'm twice her size!"

"She's strong!"

Drew, being well aware of May's Beautifly's strength and speed, blushed, unable to come up with a comeback. Truth be told, he was scared of heights. Not badly, more like… normal survival instinct. Well… kind of badly, but other people were worse. His sister, for one. She never opened her window because she was on the second floor of their house and it had taken her years to even look out of the window. He supposed she must be over that, though. His family had moved a little over a year back into this nice penthouse that was really high up. He wondered how she had coped. He hadn't asked.

Suddenly, he was jerked from his random thoughts by May. "Hey. What's up? You didn't even yell when I mocked you for being afraid of heights."

Drew looked at her and blinked for a second. Then it clicked. "I AM NOT AFRAID OF HEIGHTS!" his over-deffencivness gave it away and he knew it. May smirked. "'M not afraid of heights," he said again, sounding like a sulking toddler, claiming not to be tired when he clearly was.

May had won. Now he had to go through with the dare.

**A/N TO THOSE WHO ARE READING THIS WHILE I AM STILL UPDATING: PLEASE READ THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE! Ok, here goes. I am so, so, so, sorry that I went so long without updating. I'd like to say I was busy, and I kind of was, but I had time to write. I just had four weeks of being busy, and its hard for me to leave off in the middle of writing a chapter and take such a long break. Please forgive me. I would also like to say how thankful I am if you are still reading my fic, and even more so if you are reading this. Thank you all so much, please review, and I love you to pieces! Xoxoxo.**

**ARGH! I thought I would have more room from truth or dare, but it would be way to long, so It'll be finished later. It's not even important. It was just a random filler for when I didn't have enough chapter. Idk what I'll do in the next chappy. I'll think of something. ;)**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N WOW! A NEW CHAPTER! I can't even believe I left this for sooooo long! Wow! So read and review! :D enjoy!**

The next morning was awkward. The two departed early for Agufeu Terrevento, the oldest town in Taschen, and neither spoke. For once, however, May was the one smirking smugly as she glanced at her huffy companion. After a few minutes she broke the silence.

"Oh come _on!_" she laughed playfully spinning so she was walking front of him, facing him as she addressed him. "You get me _all the time! _I got you _once!_ Let me enjoy my victory! I promise I'll only mock your blatant fear of heights on _special_ occasions!" she giggled as he looked up skeptically. He was clearly not over the fact that she had instructed her loyal bug pokemon to put off catching him until he almost hit the ground. While she had been forced into a fit of hysterics that lasted far past when Beautifly returned the shaking boy to their shared balcony, it has hardly been funny to Drew at the time. Looking back on it, and being a person of decent humor and sportsmanship, he agreed that it had been sufficient payback for him giving her hell for years and could have, from an observer's point of view, been funny, but he wouldn't give her that satisfaction… actually maybe she was more satisfied thinking it got to him this much…

"Fine," he said, sighing in defeat but inwardly having a brilliant idea. "Just do me a quick favor?" he asked, as his friend made to turn around and fall back into step beside him.

"Hm?" she asked, dropping her smirk in lieu of a confused, questioning look.

"Keep walking backwards for say…." He dragged it out "1 second…"

"Wha-" she tripped over a large protruding root and landed on her back painfully as the boy nonchalantly sidestepped her and walked past without missing a beat. The victory smirk returned to its rightful owner.

"Not fair!" she screeched, her face flushing bright red as she stood up in a huff, brushing herself off and running to catch up with the smug, green-haired teen.

"Like throwing people out of windows?"

"I didn't _throw _you! I politely _requested _that _you_ throw _yourself!"_ replied May.

"Exactly. I did that because I am a kind, obliging and not at all argumentative sort of guy who does nice things for friends, and you did that because you're stupid," reasoned drew, clearly achieving the goal of confusing and upsetting May, much to his delight. The two bickered for about half an hour before stopping for a brief lunch and continuing.

"ARGH!" shouted May no more than five minutes after they had departed the lovely clearing of their lunch. "The map says south but south is a rock WALL!" she exclaimed in frustration, gawking at the wrinkled map in her fist and gesturing wildly at the afore mentioned rock face to her left that she had stumbled upon out of no where. "ARE THERE EVEN ANY MOUNTAINS AROUND HERE?" she shouted, throwing up the map dramatically and then retrieving it quickly upon seeing the wurmple nibbling at it curiously at her feet.

"It might," ventured Drew sarcastically, "and mind you, this is just a guess but it _might_ be the mountain for which our next destination is NAMED," he said, shouting the last word and pointing at the place on the map May had not been looking at. "Which means," he continued calmly when he saw that May showed no signs of replying "we're close."

The two followed the mountain's rocky face for a while before it cut off abruptly and revealed a road that wove between that cliff and a similar one on the other side. They stepped onto the road and followed it into a small, but beautiful town center.

"It's so cute!" squealed May.

"Yeah, it's really cool, isn't it?" said Drew, smiling at their surroundings. Most of the town was visible from their spot, including the small lake it was built around and the encompassing Agufeu Terrevento Mountain that curved around in almost a full circle around the town named after it. The Contest Hall was built at the end of a small pier that was an extension of this main street leading to around the center of the glisteningly clear lake. On either side of the street they were on lay the pokemon center, the pokemart and most other stores or restaurants. Past those were quaint houses and even some farm land to fill the rest of the small valley. All in all, it was very picturesque.

"Come on," said Drew after watching May's expression fondly as she took in the regions oldest town. "I see the pokemon center, we should get our room."

"Yeah," said May, following him as he made to do just that.

"Wow," came a smooth voice from the left once they entered the small, old-fashioned Pokemon Center. "So the rumors were true," it continued as they identified it as belonging to a tall, dirty-blonde boy perhaps a year older than May, who wore, along with nice clothes, a small pin with May's face printed on it. "You really _did_ join forces with this…" he glanced distastefully at Drew "Neanderthal. Oh! How rude of me!" he exclaimed at the confused May and the death-glaring Drew. "I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Garth," he continued, extending a hand in May's direction only to find it intercepted by a firm handshake that was honestly more reminiscent of a torture device from Drew.

"Yeah, and that was the _only thing you've done that was rudely since you started talking,"_ said Drew sarcastically.

"Um…" started May questioningly, timidly pointing a small finger at the picture of herself proudly attached to the teen's chest, but Drew interrupted her.

"He's part of your fanclub," said Drew, not breaking his glare, but releasing the captured hand that had retaliated with severe force itself.

"Close!" said Garth, a smirk gracing his handsome features. "I am the _head_ of May's fanclub!"

"Oh! Well… thank you! I'm honored… um… wow" stuttered May, stepping forward to shake his hand but receiving a kiss on it instead of the firm grip exchanged between him and Drew. She blushed heavily while Drew's glare changed into one of pure loathing. Catching the hint, Garth graciously let go of her hand, but didn't let the sneer drop from his face.

"No, the honor is all mine," he said in his smooth voice, changing his gaze to soft and directing it at May. At this point Drew cut in.

"Come on, May, we've gotta go get our room," he said, attempting to keep the venom in his voice to a minimum but not quite succeeding.

"I can see you're… _partner_ is in a hurry, so I'll stop distracting you. It was a _pleasure _to meet you, May and… _Andrew,_" he said, turning and strutting out the door with a wave.

"Wow!" said May, her eyes glazed over. "That was so cool! The leader of my_ fanclub!_ Ohmigod!"

"Wow," said Drew irritably. "Sound more like a nine year old, why dontcha…" me snapped, trying to fill the comment with sarcasm and mockery but instead just saying it grumpily.

"Wow, no need to get all worked up about it," said May. "And _I _for one thought he was nice… and charming," she said fondly.

"Yeah, nothing like calling a guy _Neanderthal_ to just _sweep _him off his feet!" exclaimed Drew, leaning against the counter while Nurse Joy attended to another client.

"Well he's better than Nova, that's for sure," scoffed May, crossing her arms.

"Hey, at least _I _own up to the fact that Nova's a _bitch_!" said Drew as casually as possible. "But there is _no way __**that**_ is better than Nova. At least she's…" he thought about it for a minute "hot," he finished smugly, having not found a better redeeming feature of his number one fan.

May looked absolutely flabbergasted. "You think Nova is _hot?_" she asked incredulously. Drew shrugged. "Oh come now, Drew, now you're just lying," she said, still slightly shocked. Drew just shrugged again, deciding that she was actually somewhat correct. Nova wasn't that good looking, actually. Or at least not his type. At all. "And even if she is—which she clearly isn't—she's not even on the same level as Garth." Now May was dreamy eyed again and Drew was really starting to find annoying.

"Whatever, May. If you find dude's who look like pre-teen _girls_ then that's your thing and I do not want to know," he said, referring to Garth's somewhat soft, almost feminine features. Regardless of that, he knew that the boy was handsome, but he wasn't going to admit that… ever.

May just muttered something.

"What was that?" asked Drew.

"I said," said May loudly, "that just because you're _jealous_ doesn't mean you need to act like such a _baby_." Drew opened his mouth to retort, but was stopped by the arrival of Nurse Joy.

It took a few minutes, but they soon found themselves collapsing onto the neatly made beds of double pokemon center room. May yawned and closed her eyes on the soft pillow while Drew sat on his own bed unpacking a few of the items from his backpack.

"Hey," he said, still looking at the stuff he'd just removed from his bag. "I'm gonna go see if this town has any decent restaurants, wanna come with?" he asked, slipping his wallet from it's pocket in his bag into his roomy pocket.

"Sure," said May, her stomach grumbling as if on cue. "Actually that sounds great," she laughed, making him smiles a bit. The two got up and headed outside, teasing each other fondly as per usual.

**A/N NEW CHAPTER OMG! I HAVENT UPDATED IN MONTHS! I PROMISE IM TOTALLY GETTING BACK INTO THIS! IM GONNA UPDATE MORE! AND SOON! YAAAAAY! PLEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAASE REVIEW! XOXOXOXOXO**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N HULLO! I'M STILL WRITING! NO MORE FOUR MONTH BREAKS! YAY! ENJOY!**

Chapter 11

The pair registered for the contest the next morning, leaving them the rest of that day and the following morning to practice. There were no parks of anything in the area, but just a five minute walk away past most of the cultivated fields was a expanse of grass encircling the lake and fading away into stone at higher altitudes in the surrounding mountain. The pair, instead of practicing their routine, spent a lot of the morning just throwing stuff for their pokemon, this time Beautifly and Roselia, and having two-on-two scrimmages. After that they packed up and headed to the great restaurant they had eaten at the night before for lunch with intentions of returning to the same place to practice their actual routine and perhaps some good combos they could use with their pokemon in battle.

"What's up Drew?" asked May cheerfully in an attempt to start a conversation as the two enjoyed the freshly caught magikarp from the lake in their delicious sandwiches.

"You do in fact realize that I have been _living_ with you for like… two weeks and have barely spent like ten minutes out of your presence, right?" said Drew, raising an eyebrow, and feeling weird because he himself hadn't realized the extent to which they had been in each other's presence until he pointed it out. "How could anything possibly be up without your knowledge?" he finished a little awkwardly.

"Hey, I dunno about you but _I_ have a life and stuff and people outside of just what I do with _you_," retorted May, a laugh in her voice. "I talked to my brother on the phone before bed the other night and have been chatting with Ash and Brock and Misty on facebook and stuff. But I guess it was a bit insensitive for me to ask that question when I know that you don't _have_ a social life," said May smirking.

"Hey, I facebooked with Solidad _last week!_" said Drew defensively.

May weighed in her mind the urge to continue mocking him while she still had the upper hand and the urge to inquire about her friend. "How's Solidad?" she asked after a moment. "I haven't talked to her recently. I think I have her number in my pokegear, but I don't text her often."

"She's good. Apparently she's the new target Harley has chosen to pick on," he said. May looked concerned. "Oh, don't worry. She's pretty tough and can take care of herself, unlike _some_ people," he said uninterestedly.

"I ALWAYS TOOK CARE OF MYSELF!" retorted May, blushing soon after at the looks her volume attracted. "When have I _ever_ needed _your_ help?" she asked angrily, mentally counting them and hoping he would just look over the twenty or so obvious choices and just let her be right for once. Of course, she had no such luck and he spent the rest of lunch listing the times he helped her or her immediate friend group while she sunk down into his chair.

After the two had finished their meal and May's self esteem was crushed to Drew's liking, the pair exited the restaurant and made their way along the same rustic path they had traveled before, only to find their previous location occupied. Instantly upon recognizing the inhabitant, the pair's expression's switched, Drew's superior look sinking to one of hatred and sulkiness while May's moping face morphed into a starry-eyed look of the smitten teen she was.

"Let's go," muttered Drew darkly, actually grabbing at May's arm in a slightly more possessive gesture than intended. She ignored this, literally shaking him off without so much as a backward glance and venturing forward toward the tall, lean blonde currently showing off impressive muscles clad in a tank top in the sunlight as he flung a Frisbee into the mountains where it was quickly retrieved by a yanma, it's wings a blur as it perched on it's master's shoulder and handed him the disk. Perhaps hearing the tall grass rustle with movement, or May's exaggerated gasp of delight, Garth turned around, surprised.

"Oh, May! What brings you here on this fine afternoon?" he asked pleasantly. "Oh, hello, Drew," he added as May seemed to struggle for words.

"Um, well, we were actually just coming to practice, you know, over there… ish and we saw you… and your yanma… wow it's really fast," she finished lamely.

"Actually," said Drew venomously, sidestepping his partner, "We were coming to practice _here-_ish," he continued pointedly, glaring at Garth.

"Oh, May, I'm _so_ sorry," he apologized in a honey-sweet voice. "Were you practicing here?" he crooned in a voice that would've seemed sarcastic if he weren't using it on May, who was eating it all up.

"Oh, no, well, yes, but… I mean, well, no it's not like we reserved it and it's fine there's plenty of land to go round this wasn't a particular place we were using it was just a place we happened to _be_ using," rambled May and Drew, for once taking pity on the girl, decided to end her useless word-vomiting.

"Fine, whatever," he said coldly, linking arms with May as casually as possible, May seeming not to notice. "We'll just go over there. I mean, the scenery's pretty much the same all around the valley: lake, grass, mountain," muttered Drew. It was quite true. The terrain was uniform on almost the entire back side of the valley this town resided in, with the exception of a few paths that lead up the mountain or to the cave that would be the pair's next rout out.

"Wow, Drew, how mature of you," said Garth and, noticing that May seemed to be 'waking up' and agreeing with him, he added "but really it's not necessary. I mean, it _is_ a little rude of you to make May walk farther without consulting her. I've only got myself and Yanma, so we can go so fewer people have to walk," explained Garth elaborately, making Drew grumble. May had obviously been in no state to absorb all of his words and it pretty much translated as "Garth just did something nicer than what Drew did" in her smitten brain. With that, Grath bid them adieu and was on his way, leaving a Drew still with his arm possessively linked through May's and May waving like an idiot, her mouth agape.

"Oh for the love of…" muttered Drew irritably as Garth stretched dramatically, obviously showing off. "Put your shirt on!" he shouted, though not loudly enough for the blonde to hear him. Garth, obviously not hearing him, continued on his way, still in his show-off-y wife beater, flashing May one last smile just for good measure.

When May sighed, Drew had had it. "Okay, there is _no __**way**_ that guy has that big an effect on you! You're just faking it to piss me off!" he exclaimed!

"What?" retorted May indignantly. "He's seriously good looking! And charming! And why would I fake it? Why does it even make you so mad? It's none of _your_ business!"

"It's just pathetic! You've barely met him and you're _literally_ drooling over him!"

"I'm not _drooling!"_

"Whatever!" shouted Drew finally, and the two just stood there fuming, arms crossed and glaring at each other in silence.

"We should… w should practice," muttered May in a voice that, despite her angry exterior, sounded somewhat hurt. Drew winced at the sudden pang of guilt, but said nothing of it.

"Yeah, I guess," he agreed, and the both of them released their pokemon.

They practiced long and hard, speaking only about the routine, and ignoring the awkwardness that hung about them. Their pokemon, however, suffered from it, acting hesitant and cautious and taking longer to learn the routine then they usually would.

As the sun finally sunk behind the mountain at a place that Drew was sure would be beautifully parallel to the peak of the mountain and the contest hall from Main Street, Garth made his reappearance, this time wearing a button down shirt over his undershirt, but with the buttons undone. An improvement, at least, thought Drew.

"Hey, May. Still practicing hard?" he asked, smiling.

"Yeah," shouted May, but this time she didn't drop everything, but instead continued to command her butterfly pokemon in sync to Drew's rose pokemon.

"K, well, see you at the contest then," said Garth, his mood seeming to have been lowered slightly.

"See ya," replied May, and Drew nodded at him.

The two coordinators continued to train normally, but as they did so, Drew shot May a sideways glance and smiled fondly at her. May noticed but didn't return it, and instead watched her beautifly ascend gracefully. She would never admit it, but her ignoring of Garth _had_ been a peace offering to Drew. After all, she'd known Drew for ages and Garth was basically just some guy she met. When it came down to it, it was actually pretty easy to prioritize.

"Hey May," said Drew in an uncharacteristically soft voice that night not a minute after they turned off the lights to go to sleep.

"Yeah?" asked May, rolling from her back to her side, so she could gaze over at her partner.

"Sorry for earlier. It wasn't any of my business," he said, finding that swallowing his pride wasn't nearly as painful or pill-like as he had anticipated. It actually left him feeling better; like maybe he could actually get some sleep that night.

"It's fine, Drew. Really. I dunno why I was even acting that way. It's not like me. Also he might be a bit too… _sweet_ for me anyway…"

And with that, the two fell asleep and Drew, for one, had never slept better.

**A/N YAY ANOTHER UPDATE! HUZZAH! :D I reaaaally hope you're all still enjoying it. What do you think of Garth thus far? Too perfect? He's gonna be flawed, I just don't know exactly how yet… also Nova shall be back soon enough…. I think. I have a kinda sorta plan, but not really…. So yeah… REVIEW! XOXOXOXOXO**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N I'm just gonna keep writing. If I stop, I lose momentum. WRITE WRITE WRITE! Okay! I'm gonna get this chapter up by some time tomorrow, I promise!**

Chapter 12

Drew woke up the next morning to find May already wandering about their room frantically. Looking at the time, he saw why. He had overslept a bit, and while they still had plenty of time left, it wasn't implausible for May to already be getting ready. He didn't move for a moment, just lying there in bed watching his friend wander around. Despite her slippered feet and bed-head, she was already looking quite pretty. The heterosexual male teenager part of him noted appreciatively that her dress was both slightly shorter and slightly lower-cut than the previous one, but the sane side of his brain that was waking up more slowly jumped to life and mentally strangled any and all parts of his head that were actually looking at _May_ in that way.

"Oh, good morning," said May cheerfully, noticing Drew's stirring. "Hey, I was wondering if you could do that bun thing with my hair again," she asked, looking a little too happy for Drew's liking at the prospect.

"Wha-" he started groggily. "Wait, no! Do it yourself! You're a girl! I'm a guy, shouldn't you be worried about me messing it up or something!"

"Fine whatever," said May, reaching up and clumsily attempting to twist her hair into something elegant but slowly knotting it even more than it had previously been. "ugh… Hey, you _are _a guy!" Drew gave her a "no duh" look. "Why do you even _know_ how to do a girl's hair?" she was amazed that this had yet to occur her. Drew blanched.

"Nothing! Nothing at all!"

"Drew, I don't think that was even an answer to the question…"

"No reason! Drop it! Hey, how bout you just… braid your hair or something………. Or… high pony-tail! Yeah… wait no, that's how nova wears hers, I got it! Leave. It. Down. You never do… it'll look pretty," said Drew, hoping that throwing her this last muttered compliment would, perhaps, distract her for the time being.

"Fine," said May, looking a bit pleased at the comment, but not forgetting to throw Drew a meaningful "you haven't distracted me from my question" look as she went into the bathroom to brush her hair.

Drew sighed and started to change into his formalwear, this time consisting of a nice vest, a dress shirt and nice pants, another dark green tie and, as was becoming his signature, a rose in the lapel; pink to compliment his partner's new dress.

May reemerged shortly after, to find Drew struggling with the top few buttons of his shirt. She just rolled her eyes and removed his hands delicately, easing the buttons through the fabric effortlessly. She then proceeded to tie his tie, as long as she was already helping him out.

"Thanks," said Drew a little awkwardly, a faint pink tinge gracing his cheeks.

"No prob," said May winking. "Okay, your turn to be helpful: which shoes," she asked excitedly, holding up both choices. Drew sweatdropped.

"I thought we had been over this! Just because I helped with your hair _once_ doesn't mean I'm your fashion consultant for life!"

"Never said you were. But I have to admit you have a decent sense of style, so you _must_ have an opinion," prodded May, seeing the boy's eyes dart from shoe to shoe despite his neglect to answer her question.

"_Fine_!" exclaimed Drew begrudgingly. "Go with the flats. The color works better and that way I won't have to worry about you falling and killing yourself on the dirt road the whole time," he added, mumbling something about how she'd probably trip _over_ the railing on the pier and land in the lake.

May ignored these comments and slipped her feet elegantly into her pink flats, smiling and humming something nondescript.

"You seem less nervous about this one," remarked Drew, looking glad of this.

"Yup!" grinned May. "I think winning the last one was all I needed. Also I feel much more comfortable with the whole contest partners thing now… I mean, not you…. I mean the concept… I wasn't… I didn't feel uncomfortable… never mind…" muttered May, a little embarrassed.

"Naw, I get it," said Drew, unable to help but smile at the teenager's childish ways. "Hey, we should probably get going, you know, just to be ahead of the crowd."

May agreed and the two set off, walking with Nurse Joy who was also on her way to judge. She wished them the best of luck as they parted at the door.

"Thank god Brock's not here," said May giggling, as nurse Joy wandered off through the door that inevitably led to the judges table.

"Oh yeah, he was the one with that nurse fetish…" said Drew amusedly. He laughed at May's expression. "What? Mental image too gross?" he asked.

"A little…" muttered May giggling. She pretty much tried to avoid all thoughts of Brock_ actually_ being with a woman… ever for the sake of women everywhere. And her stomach.

"Yeah," laughed Drew. The two then proceeded into the waiting room and looked around, opting to sit next to a pair they recognized from the previous tournament and make small talk.

When the contest began, May and Drew watched interestedly as an attempted fire/water combination failed miserably but was commended for it's ambitiousness, a beautiful psychic/ghost display and a classic combination of plusle and minun. Then, at last, May and Drew were called onto the stage. As they walked by, Garth winked at May, flashing her a blinding smile. May blushed modestly before putting on her game face and showing the crowd what she's got.

"Next up, we have the winners of the recent Assombreia Contest, May and Drew!" shouted the announcer, sweeping her hand dramatically so the whole audience could see and coming to a stop pointing at the entrance through which May and Drew had just appeared. The crowd went wild. Admittedly, there were fewer people in it than usual, as was fitting for such a small town and proportionally small, naturally-lit contest hall, but the respective fan clubs of May and Drew both were well represented.

"Alright!" began May confidently, trying not to miss a beat as she saw Garth watching from the doorway, "Come on out, Beautifly!"

"You're up," began Drew energetically, trying to resist the urge to throw the pokeball at Garth's head when he saw Garth watching from the doorway, "Roselia!"

The grass and bug type pokemon emerged onto the stage gracefully, Roselia pirouetting to center stage and Beautifly doing a graceful circle of the stage before landing soundly on Roselia's head, the two exuding a beautiful combination of magical leaf and gust, sending the attacks into a whirling storm of flying, glowing flora.

"Roselia/Beautifly!" shouted both May and Drew, "Silver wind!" This doubling up of a strong, beautiful, silvery attack combined with the already windy stage caused the falling leaves to fly across the audience in a blur of rainbow and silver glow. They continued with various displays of what you can do with one magical leaf and gust and a multitude of other attacks before finishing it off with a dazzling display of sunny day which shone proudly through the sky light making the previous attacks glimmer and solar beam which was charged on the sunny-day and caused the leaves to shatter into shimmering flakes that rained down on the audience, the glow fading into nothing as it touched their outreached hands. After the glitter and flashes of rainbow light faded, the crowd burst into applause, their faces glowing in the remaining effect of sunny day.

"Alright, let's give it up once more for our young contestants, May and Drew of the Hoenn Region!" shouted the gleeful announcer, her white smile shining in the sun. May and Drew smiled gratefully at the audience waving and, as they left, Drew even threw one of his fangirls a rose, making her swoon on the spot.

"Great job, May," said Garth, giving her a hug that she returned rather awkwardly, but joyously nonetheless. He loosened his grip on her, but did not release her, instead holding her around the waist as he smiled down at her.

"Thanks, Garth," said May happily, though she was shifting uncomfortably in his grasp. Drew, noticing this, put a hand warningly on Garth's arm, causing him to relinquish his hold on the brunette. Drew's glare softened, showing Garth that he had done the right thing, and then he dragged May insistently toward a less Garth-filled waiting area while the two muttered hasty goodbyes.

"Okay," said Drew, abandoning the hopes of keeping peace they had established the previous night, "He was _all_ over you! What the hell?" he asked, in an unintentionally accusatory voice.

"What? It was a _hug!_ And it's not like _I_ asked him to hug me!" retorted May, who had been just about to thank Drew for his interference when he had snapped at her.

"I- that's not what I meant! I just mean it was ridiculous! You didn't _ask_ but you can, like, reject him or something!" replied Drew in a quieter voice than before, as he saw contestants look up from their pokemon-primping to stare at the ruckus.

"Maybe I didn't _want_ to reject him!"  
"Yeah! Ya did! You were uncomfortable and you _should have been! _You met this dude two days ago and have talked to him, like, twice! He's the leader of your fanclub, who knows what sort of creep he could be!"

"I don't need you to protect me!"

"Just… be careful around douche bags like that, okay? They might try something with you, I know my fangirls ha-"

"Okay, so _what_ are you know, my big _brother? _My _mom?_" asked May incredulously.

"That's not what I meant!"

"Whatever!"

"May tha-" but with that May had stormed off in a huff to sit near Garth and wish him luck on his appeal. The two watched and waited for the first part to be over from separate parts of the room, not making eye contact with each other.

**A/N ooooh! Draaaama! Wooooow! Anyway, please review! You know the drill! XOXOXOXXOXO**


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